Deceptive Tactics of the Online Left?

Check out this article by article by Andrew Breibert in the Washington Times.com via (h/t) Pundit & Pundette (check out their link to R.S. McCain's post as well).

So, are there trolls roaming about in the conservative blogs? Well the answer is, of course, yes. Although I haven't had one visit this tiny blog, a number of other more popular blogs I frequent have had to deal with them, and I have seen these troll posts. William A Jacobson's Legal Insurrection had this post on his experiences.

Tactics such as these do present us with a difficult problem. Ideological shills spreading misinformation and false racist, sexist, or misogynistic hatred to discredit their opponents is a tactic becoming more common and, I'm afraid, might eventually be viewed as business as usual.

Of course the right is not immune to using such tactics, but I vehemently discourage indulging in it. In my view, people are defined by their values and actions. One should reflect the other, and nothing short of mortal peril or war should compromise this relationship. When a person (right or left) stoops to such dishonest tactics, their compromises invariably distort their ultimate intention and the result is unavoidably warped from their values. If a person adapts to their newly warped values, reapplies this tactic and then re-adapts again, this sets in a motion a pattern that often creates monstrous results. The art of compromise is one thing, adapting your values to these compromises is something else.

Of course, this presents us with a problem as Pundit & Pundette note: how to we deal with these tactics. They are, after all, reasonably effective in the short-term, and when the intention is narrowed to only create discord relatively simple to employ. It's something to think about, but I'm sure there is a solution beyond just riding it out. It's simply a matter of finding it.